How To Price Your Items
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There are many different pricing formulas that people use when deciding how much to sell their products for.
Standard Pricing Formula
time + materials = cost
cost x 2 = wholesale price
wholesale x 2 = retail price
My Basic Pricing Formula
Personally, I like to get at least 3 times what I paid for the blank. For example, if I buy a t-shirt for $5, I try to sell it for $15. This usually (not always) covers the cost of the vinyl and blank, and gives me profit for my time. However, there are other factors that I take into consideration, such as the cost of vinyl and my time.
Vinyl Cost Breakdown
Some people try to get very precise with their pricing, breaking down the cost of vinyl per project. To calculate how much your vinyl costs per square foot, take the total price and divide it by the number of feet in a roll. For example, a 12″ x 6ft roll of black Oracle 651 vinyl costs $6. $6 divided by 6ft=$1/sq. ft.
When I make wine glasses, my design is usually around 3″x 3″. This would equate to a small fraction of a dollar (1/16th or 6 cents) for the amount of vinyl you need to make mugs/glasses. I know that adhesive vinyl is generally pretty cheap so I usually don’t factor in adhesive vinyl costs to my prices, unless it’s a huge project.
Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) is more costly than Oracle 651 vinyl, so adjust your math accordingly if you want to calculate the cost of your HTV. A 11.8″ x 5ft roll of Siser Easyweed HTV is currently selling for $16.99. This breaks down to about $3.40 per square foot.
The Cost Of Your Time
Your time is valuable! It’s very important that you pay yourself adequately for the amount of time it takes to make a product. Some projects with intricate designs take longer to make than other more simple designs.
I can spend hours and hours designing a memorial lantern, weeding tiny bits of stubborn Oracle 651, disassembling the lantern so that I can get my vinyl on the inside of the glass, transferring the vinyl, and reassembling it. My blank materials might only cost me $10, but I charge anywhere between $30-60 to compensate for all the hours I spend making it. It wouldn’t be worth it to sell that same $10 for lantern $20 if I spent 4 hours making it. Then you would only be paying yourself $2.50/hour for your time.
You want to make sure you’re paying yourself at least minimum wage for your time.
What Other People Are Charging
You need to do some research and see who your competition is and what they’re charging. Look on Etsy or Facebook Marketplace and see if anyone is selling something similar to you. Maybe you are selling a beautiful, personalized, custom designed wood sign. You list it for $40, but then find out your neighbor is selling one just like it for $25. Who do you think the customer is going to choose? You don’t want to underpay yourself for your work, so use one of the formulas above to create a price you feel good about. If there is competition in your area, find a way to make your product better than theirs! Consider these two wood signs below. One has just vinyl text, and the other has lace ribbon and a beautiful flower added.
The one with the added touches will probably sell better and for a higher price.
Deciding how much to sell your items for depends on a lot of different factors.
